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Fil-Am found guilty of trying to cash fake US$2B check

27 October 2018

Orosa will be sentenced at the District Court on Nov 12

By Vir B. Lumicao

A
Filipino-American woman has been convicted in District Court of “using a false
instrument” for attempting to deposit a fake US$2 billion cashier’s check in a
Hang Seng Bank branch in October last year.

Judge
Charles Chan convicted Elena S. Orosa who stood emotionless at the dock on Oct
22, and set the sentencing for Nov 12 pending a background report. Orosa, who is
said to hold a degree from a US
university, was remanded in custody until then.

Chan rejected
the defense case that Orosa, 57, had no intention to cash the check. He maintained
that an offense had already been committed even if the check was not cashed.

He also
dismissed Orosa’s claim that she did not know the check was fake before she
tried to deposit it in the account of a certain Manish, alleged owner of Great
Billion Hong Kong Ltd in the Hankow
Road, Tsimshatsui branch of Hang Seng on Oct 18,
2017.

Chan said
he did not believe that someone who studied at a US university like Orosa would not
question why a friend would entrust a check with such a big amount to her.

The
prosecution had said earlier that Orosa graduated with a BS Management degree
at San FranciscoStateUniversity.
She was born in the Philippines
but migrated to the US with
her parents at age 5, and had acquired US citizenship.

Giving
evidence in court, Orosa said she went to the bank before noon to deposit the
check in Manish’s account at the request of her Filipino friend, Randy Songadan.
She said Randy had no funds to come to Hong Kong
so could not deposit the check personally.

The
defense tried to show Orosa had unknowingly allowed herself to be used by other
people for the transaction that would have caused the bank a US$2 billion loss had
the check not been discovered as a forgery.

Orosa, during
cross examination by defense lawyer John Hemmings, admitted that Randy was not
the owner of the check. She said Randy mentioned in Whatsup messages about four
days earlier that he had assets belonging to former president Ferdinand Marcos
and that the US$2 billion was part of those assets.

Randy
claimed a friend named Ed Frondoso had contacts in Central Bank who made the
check to take money that “the old man” Marcos had kept in Hang Seng, Orosa said.

She
also admitted that about four days because going to the bank, she had been in
contact on Skype with Manish, who instructed her on where to deposit the check
and to give the deposit receipt to Raveen Kumari, managing director of Great
Billion in Hong Kong.

Orosa
said after presenting the check to a bank staff named Liu, she and a friend,
Filipina tourist Veronica Yambao, were told to sit in a waiting room while
staff processed the check. They were arrested by police more than half an hour
later.

In his ruling,
Chan said he did not believe that Orosa did not know the check was fake before
she tried to deposit it, adding any adult with a business sense would know it
was a forgery.

He also
rejected the defense claim of prejudice in how the bank staff at the counter
handled the check after Orosa presented it. The judge said the staff was just
performing his duty when he called the attention of his superior to the
forgery.